We had a lot of help from a local rancher locating the animals but it was Alysa's strategy that actually sealed the deal. The rancher pointed us to a place where two washes merged into one. There was a hill right in the middle of the convergence and that is where I thought we should set up. It offered the clearest view of all three washes. But Alysa chose to set up on the cliffs on the East side of the convergence. It was higher but the hill in the middle blocked some of the view of one of the washes. Turns out the animal was taken in almost the exact spot I would have had her set up at. She is only 16 but seems to have a natural instinct.

The herd moved across the hill fairly quick and the largest animal was out of sight in a moment. One remained on top of the hill eating. I asked if she wanted to wait for the larger animal to return but she wasn't interested in the largest. The one remaining animal posed a head on shot only, slightly quartering but it was standing still. I told her it was a decent sized animal and called the distance of 115 yards. She knew to aim 2" low but all she had for a target was a head shot. She was prone on a rock 40 or 50 feet above the animal but for some reason couldn't use the bi pod. So the shot was prone but the fore end was supported by her left arm both elbows on the rock she had lain down on. She aimed for the center of mass of what she had. The head. The shot entered the right side about 1" above and 1" in front of the ear and exited the left side about 1" below and 1" behind the left ear. I knew she could shoot but I wasn't sure if she could hit an animal as well as she could shoot paper. Question answered.

Here is a picture of the exit wound (the photo i have of the entrance wound is too large to post directly).

Boss man where i work goes south every year to do it.Made some up at work one day,,I got to tellya it was the best pig i ever had, Very tasty and tender. But i guess they are not classified as a pig,they are in a group by themselfs is what he tell us,

I haven't hunted javalinas in several years, but they're fun little critters to pursue. Your daughter likely chose right in not shooting the largest. The big ones can make a better mount, but the meat can be sorta rank. A nice, medium sized javalina is far better table fare.

Never shoot the largest pigelina in the bunch! Best are the young adults, which generally look to be about two inches shorter in height.

Head shots are IMO the only way to go.

I like to slow-cook barbecue the hams. First sear, turning and basting every couple of minutes--using tongs, not a fork. No salt in the basting mix. Keep the juice in. After no more than about ten minutes, spread the coals to the equivalent of about 275-300 degrees in an oven. Turn and baste every ten to fifteen minutes. I disremember, perzackly; maybe 1.5 to two hours? Something like that.

This works great on venison hams, but takes longer.

If you use a meat thermometer, cook until 150º to 155º at the bone, no higher.

Basting mix? Whatever is the cheapest barbecue sauce in the store. I add some butter, some Lea&Perrins (Whigglewiggy ), a little water and maybe dill (piggy) or oregano (deer). Whatever; roll your own with whatever suits.

Yum.

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I had to carry it back about a mile and a half. Of course the pack frame was, you guessed it, in the truck. So over the shoulders it went. The shot was taken at 3:15 PM and I knew if we field dressed it quickly we could be back at camp before dark and have this thing on ice. So other than shoo'ing away the remainder of the herd, we field dressed it and hoof'd it out of there as quick as we could.

As far as the rifle goes, we were hoping she would draw a junior deer this year but she didn't. She had settled on a .270 for her deer rifle and so we just got her one of the Remington 700 package deals. She can shoot it for extended periods without recoil bothering her. She was fine with a 30.06 but decided she would not be comfortable shooting for longer periods of time at the range. The rifle shoots great. A bit more rifle than needed for javelina but at least she will have an all around rifle for the rest of her life. If i could have re-set up my loading bench I would have loaded some more appropriate loads. Of course with a head shot it could have been a .300 Win Mag and it wouldn't have made a difference. One draw back to the head shot was that we could not salvage the skull except for the lower jaw. And even that was broken. It would have made a nice bleached piece for her to keep. The big advantage to a head shot was it was easy to field dress.

Art - very interesting cooking tips. I had heard that the hams were tough to cook because they were so lean. The meat is still aging under ice and I think I will revise our plan about turning it all, except the straps, into Chorizo and Sausage. We are still looking to what our neighbors have for meat grinders and sausage stuffers before we invest in those appliances. It appears that the inexpensive ones don't work very well and we would be over $300.00 to purchase suitable units new.

We figure this one was around 2 years old. It had all of it's teeth with some wear.

Take a rear ham, bone in or out does not matter, slice 3-6 cloves of garlic into smaller chunks. With a pointed knife make holes in the meat and insert the garlic 1-2" into the holes. Place it into a large crock pot and cover it with a light coating of olive oil, 1 large sliced onion, and 1 quart of sweet BBQ sauce (Stubb's). Cook for about 4-6 hours.

The meat flakes off with a fork and the flavor of the BBQ sauce is injected into the meat thru the slow cooking. The size of the ham dictates the size of the crockpot , or trim it down to fit.

Pulled pork sandwiches the next days are heaven, just add fresh BBQ sauce to the sandwich cold!

No kids have ever complained or cared about the taste.

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"Happiness is knowing the Barred Owl is Eating the Spotted Owl and environmentalists are watching Nature take it's course"

My IR driveway alert pinged, yesterday about mid-day. Ten pigelinas ambled slowly through my front yard. Sniffed around a bit at the smell of the hen-scratch I scatter for my dove and quail. Didn't stop at the water pan, though.

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